Paul,
Remove completely your whole ~/GNUStep directory structure. Then remoce ~/.xinitrc and create a ~/.Xclients that contains just
exec '/usr/local/bin/afterstep' > /dev/console
make sure to chmod +x it and then run startx. AfterStep will rebuild the whole ~/G/L/A structure.
.xsession is not used by startx. xdm uses it. They _both_ use .Xclients, so that is better.
--
WWW: http://www.afterstep.org/
FTP: ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/
MAIL: http://www.caldera.com/linuxcenter/forums/afterstep.html